The San Jose State women's volleyball team has increased security in the form of police protection amid a national controversy over transgender players on the team, a university spokesperson said.
Michelle Smith McDonald, senior director of media relations at San Jose State University, told FOX News Digital on Thursday, “We can confirm that we are using university police to provide extra security for our team at home and away games. I was able to do it,” he said.
The University Police Department records approximately 60,000 incidents, arrests 800 to 900 suspects, and writes approximately 2,500 reports each year. The Police Communications Center is said to dispatch personnel to more than 50,000 calls for service each year. Station website.
But Smith-MacDonald said the volleyball team is in need of the department's resources as the team has received national media attention in recent weeks.
“The safety of our students is our top priority. The team has received a lot of attention, but not all of it has been positive. We are ensuring the safety of our students,” Smith-MacDonald said. spoke.
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Transgender athlete Blair Fleming played three seasons at SJSU after previously playing at Coastal Carolina. (San Jose State University)
Blair Fleming, a transgender woman, spoke for San Jose State in the team's recovery from Thursday's road loss to Colorado State. Fleming transferred to San Jose State from Coastal Carolina in 2022. Fleming, who is biologically male, set a high school record at John Champe High School with 30 kills in a single game and set a single-season record for the school's girls volleyball team with 266 kills.
footage of Fleming's Huddle Page A school-record 30-kill match in September 2019 showed just how hard and fast Fleming's spikes can be against girls at the high school level.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires transgender women to submit documentation, including testosterone levels, before determining eligibility. San Jose State said it is in full compliance with NCAA rules.
However, the program still faces resistance in the form of a lawsuit from one of its players over Fleming's presence on the team and in the locker room. Four other competing programs also canceled games against San Jose State without giving a specific reason after news of the lawsuit began to spread.
Brooke Slusser, a member of the San Jose women's volleyball team, joined 18 other athletes. sue the NCAA About current gender identity policy. Slusser, who transferred to San Jose, became concerned for his safety after discovering one of his new teammates was transgender, according to the complaint.
Slusser said former NCAA swimmer and Outkick contributor Riley Gaines is a biological male who tied Gaines for the 2022 NCAA Championships, a transgender swimmer named Leah Gaines. He joined a lawsuit he filed earlier this year alleging he had to share a locker room with and play against Thomas.
According to court documents, Slusser claimed he didn't know Fleming was transgender, even though they shared a room on a team trip. Slusser also expressed concern for the safety of Fleming's opponents.
“Brooke estimates that Fleming's spike speed was in excess of 80 miles per hour, which is more than she has ever seen a woman hit a volleyball,” Slusser's complaint states. It was speed.” “Although the girls were doing their best to avoid Fleming's spikes, they were still unable to fully protect themselves.”
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One of Blair Fleming's teammates, along with several other female athletes, sued the NCAA for Title IX violations. (San Jose State University)
Boise State, Southern Utah State, Wyoming State and Utah State are the four teams whose games against San Jose State have been canceled in recent weeks.
However, Colorado State elected to play San Jose State on Thursday. It happened to be Colorado State University's annual all-around excellence game. The University of Nevada has also pre-committed to play against San Jose State University on Oct. 26, the University of Nevada announced in a statement Thursday.
The controversy over whether Fleming should be allowed to compete or share a locker room with female volleyball players sparked heated debate on both sides of the issue.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox each praised Boise State, Utah, and Southern Utah for forfeiting their games against San Jose State.
“It is imperative that we maintain a fair and safe environment for women to compete, and female athletes will continue to struggle with this difficult issue because the NCAA has not lived up to its responsibility to protect female athletes and women's sports. It's time for the NCAA to take action. This is serious and will protect our female student-athletes,” Cox wrote in a post to X.
Meanwhile, Little, who passed an executive order in the state on Aug. 28 aimed at opposing transgender participation in girls' and women's sports, said his own influence on Boise State's forfeiture decision. praised the command.
“I applaud Boise State for working to uphold the spirit of my executive order: the Women's Sports Act,” Little's post on X reads. “We must ensure the safety of all female athletes and continue the fight for equity in women’s sports.”
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San Jose State University redshirt senior #3 Blair Fleming plays as an outside hitter and right-side hitter on the women's volleyball team. (San Jose State University)
Little previously told FOX News Digital in an exclusive interview that there were no incidents in his state involving transgender athletes competing in women's sports that were included in the executive order prior to its passage. . Now, Boise State is ensuring that trend continues.
“Obviously, someone who has that kind of advantage, someone who previously competed in a men's sport and then transitioned to a women's sport, the good people of Idaho are wrong to think that way, “I believe it should not happen,” Little said.
“From a national perspective, there is a small group of radicals who are trying to implement changes to the rules that are already there. “We will continue to take aggressive action as the state of Idaho to legally protect female athletes and the great strides made thanks to Title IX.” ”
However, LGBTQ rights groups are insisting on Fleming's right to compete as a female volleyball player.
Santi Murillo, Wyoming Equality Communications Coordinator, LGBTQ Advocacy Group issued a statement “Athletics should promote teamwork, growth and healthy competition, not discrimination or exclusion,” he said Wednesday. The statement came after the University of Wyoming canceled its game against San Jose State for the third time on Tuesday.
New Jersey Democratic Congressional candidate Sue Altman says female athletes in the locker room are “not worried” about transgender people competing, and biological men also participate in women's sports at the youth level. He even said that it should be possible.
“I can promise you that we don't worry too much about this in the locker rooms of women's sports teams,” Altman told the New York Post.
“When we, as a society, decide that making rules about who is and isn't a woman is more important than giving young children, especially young children, the opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves. , I think we've lost our way a little bit if we're more likely to commit suicide or be bullied.”
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